


baby pull me closer

by myfriendsarevictorious



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, College AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-19 08:03:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29871633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myfriendsarevictorious/pseuds/myfriendsarevictorious
Summary: Such an original title, right? It's just Closer because that's the only thing I think of when I think of something that defines being in college in the late 2010s. Anyway this is the classic enemies-to-lovers Avalance dynamic set in some liberal arts college or other and spans from Aug. 2015-Summer 2019 because, well, those are times when I know what being in a liberal arts college was like. Lots of fighting, pining, drama, etc.Rated M because I like to write the spicy stuff but it will be only a few chapters and not worth an E rating anyway. Generally it'll be G or T.College AU
Relationships: Nora Darhk/Ray Palmer, Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	1. August 2015

**Author's Note:**

> So it's been a hot minute since I've written a particularly long or AU fanfiction but I do love my girls Ava and Sara and want to start writing again, so this is what I came up with. Hopefully you guys enjoy it.

Ava Sharpe stopped to wipe the sweat off her face as she carried two suitcases and a fan toward the entrance of Rider Hall. She looked around at all of the other students, parents, and siblings huffing and dragging suitcases, fluffy pillows, trunks, and other items. She looked back at her parents unloading more of her items from their car, gave them as big a smile as she could muster with the heat and anxiety of moving to college, and picked her bags up again. 

Sara Lance threw her suitcases onto the gray university-issued mattress on her bedframe and heaved herself up onto it, leaning against the concrete wall and watching her sister Laurel and her parents drag more of her items into room 13 of Rider Hall. Laurel dropped Sara’s suitcases and groaned.  
“Sara let’s go. You can help us. This is your shit after all.”  
“I know,” Sara said, hopping down. “I was just taking a rest while I waited for you guys. You’re really slow, you know that?”  
“Come on girls, just one day complaint free. That’s all we asked,” their mom says, dropping the side of the trunk that she and Sara and Laurel’s dad had been carrying. It was an obnoxious light blue monstrosity, covered now with band stickers, flag stickers, and other things Sara found cool this summer. But most importantly, it had a lock, and she knew the university had an out-of-sight out-of-mind kind of policy with alcohol. If they couldn’t see it, they couldn’t go looking for it.  
“I’m more than willing to comply,” Sara said, walking around her sister and parents and heading back toward the entrance.  
Sara walked back outside and turned to take a look at Rider and wait for her parents to come back out so they could help her get more things out of the car. 

Ava’s parents followed her into the building, pulling more bags and boxes along with them.  
“At least we don’t have to climb any stairs,” Ava said, looking at the numbers on the doors until she reached 13. “Here it is!”  
She and her parents walked in and Ava immediately put her things down on the ground, looking at the girl and her mom unpacking items on one of the beds, then looked over to the pile of things on the other bed in the room.  
Before she could stop herself, Ava blurted, “Can you please move your things off the other bed please. It’s awfully rude to take up someone else’s space like that.” She immediately regretted it as the girl put down the shirt she was holding and put a hand on her hip.  
“Hi, nice to meet you. I’m Zari, this is my mom, that’s not my stuff, and this isn’t your room.”  
Ava felt her face flush with frustration. Of course, this was her room. It said it on the papers in her new student pack. As she leaned down to pull the folder out of her pack, she heard a laugh at the door and turned around to see a short blonde watching the interaction between Ava and Zari.  
“Yeah, you’re in the wrong room. That’s my stuff and this is definitely my room.” Sara said as she sauntered in, tossing another box and her backpack on the gray mattress on her bed.  
“No, I’m not and I can prove it,” Ava said confidently, pulling out the first paper in her folder that had room information on it. She handed it to Sara triumphantly. Sara took it and walked over to Zari, whom up until this point she hadn’t met yet but the both of them felt some deeper uniting force and they silently agreed to team up against Ava.  
Zari suppressed a laugh as she leaned over to look at the paper Sara was holding. Sara smirked and handed the paper back to Ava. “That says you’re in classroom 13 in Bureau Hall for your intro gov class. So, unless you’re living in an academic building, I’m thinking you’ve got the wrong room.”  
Ava ripped the paper from Sara’s outstretched hand and looked it over, embarrassment flooding into her face. She composed herself and reached back down for the folder and pulled out the second piece of paper, clearly marked as Residence Hall Information. She was supposed to be in room 22. One floor up. She gave Sara a death stare then turned around and herded her parents out of the room and toward the stairs.  
Sara glanced over at Zari and, after a second, both of them burst into laughs.  
“She’s a bitch,” Zari noted as she caught her breath and turned toward her mom. “Sorry.”  
“She’s definitely going to make living her lots of fun,” Sara said, giving Zari a smile. “If not just from messing with her.”  
Zari smiled back at Sara and both knew that this was going to be the start of a very fun roommate situation. Room 13 would definitely be a hub of activity in Rider. 

Ava gritted her teeth as she climbed up the stairs ahead of her parents headed toward room 22, trying to suppress a surge of anger at the short blonde who just had to outsmart her. She found the door to her room open and walked in to find a tall girl with long black hair unpacking a suitcase while a woman hung things in one of the closets.  
“Hi,” Ava said, trying to force herself to sound pleasant.  
“Hi,” the girl responded, turning toward Ava and her parents and holding out her hand. “I’m Jess, and this is my mom.” She motioned to the woman who had stopped putting away clothes and turned to smile at them.  
“Nice to meet you,” Ava responded. She smiled as kindly as she could muster with all the frustration and anxiety the day had produced in her and she put her bags on her bed. All she really wanted to do was go find a quiet spot alone for a while to sit or read or something and not have to be around so many people. Her parents put down the bags they were carrying, and her mom touched her arm, told her they were going to get more things, and then left with her father. Ava began unpacking what was already there.  
“So, where are you from?” Jess asks as she puts some books in her desk.  
“Outside of Star City, not too far. A couple hours.” Ava replied.  
“That’s cool. I’m from Capital City. I figured going to school so far away would be a great opportunity to learn a little bit more about the world.  
“That’s cool,” Ava responded, still trying to get her bearings back and be sociable.  
“Jess let’s go back down and get the rest of your things,” Jess’s mom said, and the two of them left Ava alone in the room. She took out a throw pillow from one of her suitcases and put her head against it and groaned.  
God dammit, Ava. She thought. 

The resident assistants came by to collect all of the new freshman later that afternoon after all of the parents had closed up their cars and headed home and the students were left to unpack and mingle. The RAs crowded them all onto the courtyard outside Rider and asked everyone to sit in a big circle, then introduced themselves.  
“Hi, I’m Caitlin,” the girl said.  
“And I’m Brandon.”  
“So,” Caitlin started, looking around the group of forty. “How is everyone today?”  
There were some nods and “mmhmms” and “goods” scattered throughout the group. It was split evenly, 20 girls and 20 guys. The girls lived on the bottom two floors and the guys on the top two.  
“Alright, I figured we’d start with a quick ice-breaker to try to learn some names, and then we’ll get to talking about what the next few days is going to be like. How’s that sound?” Brandon nodded as if answering his own question, then turned to Caitlin.  
“I’ll start. Everyone think of an adjective or something that describes you that starts with the same first letter as your name. Like for me, I’m Caitlin – with a C – so I like Crazy Caitlin. Because I’m kind of weird and crazy. You think we can do that?” Most of the group exchanged looks with each other, obviously not into the game but still not quite bold enough to say no. A few people looked down or studied their hands, trying to think of an adjective that might work.  
“Okay, I’ll go next. I’m Bookish Brandon. Most of the time you see me I’ll be reading – a real book or on my phone. Okay, who wants to go next? How about we just go around in a circle.  
As the game made its way around the circle, some people offered up clever or cute names that seemed to fit their personalities – like the twins Amazing Amaya and Chameleon Charlie – Charlie seemed quite proud that she both followed and broke the rules. Then there was Righteous Rip who immediately drew side eyes from most of the group, and Jacked John who was anything but. Mathy Mona was one of the awkward ones and as soon as she said it, she explained that she just liked learning and Caitlin moved on much to her relief.  
When the game finally to Zari and Sara, who’d been whispering for most of the time, Zari looked up and said, “Zealous Zari.” She followed it up by, “It’s not perfect, but I’m working with a very unpopular letter of the alphabet.” That got a laugh from most of the group and then Brandon gestured for Sara to go.  
Sara glanced around and sat up straighter, then deadpanned, “Sexy Sara.” She looked around the group and took in the mild shock on some of their faces, then smirked. “I think that one’s pretty self-explanatory.” Ava felt a rush in her head and watched Sara turn to Zari, seeming totally self-satisfied, as Brandon and Caitlin tried to move on to the next person, a big guy who just said, “Mick,” and then stayed silent.  
Ava kept watching Sara and Zari, they would lean in and whisper in each other’s ear, then come apart and smile at each other and look at people in the group. In five more people – Random Ray, Night Owl Nora, Notorious Nate, Just Jax, and Good Gary, it got to Ava. She composed herself quickly and said, “Accurate Ava,” and looked around the group. “I take a lot of pride in doing what I do well and right.” A few people nodded and Brandon and Caitlin both smiled at her. Ava looked back toward Zari and Sara. Sara leaned over and whispered something into Zari’s ear, and she had to stifle a laugh and hit Sara’s leg. Ava could tell it was about her and looked away the moment Zari looked toward her, stifling another laugh. 

Later that evening, while most of the hall was hanging out in the lounge, Ava sat next to Jess while she talked with Amaya, Jax, and Gary. She was enjoying the conversation with them, but she could stop stealing looks at Sara and Zari in their room with the door open to the lounge, laughing with Nate, Charlie, and Ray, and John. She could tell they were flirting with the guys, and Sara possibly with Charlie too, and it was starting to piss her off just how brazen these two could be and how little they cared. She looked away quickly she saw them all turn toward her and the rest of their little group and burst out laughing.  
As people started to file out of the lounge to go to sleep before they had to be ready at nine a.m., Ava hung around a while to see when Zari and Sara would retire to their room and shut the door. When it was only the three of them, Gary, John sitting around, she walked up and, mustering as much confidence as she could, asked, “What did you two say about me earlier.”  
“What do you mean,” Zari replied.  
“What do you mean what do I mean. I mean what did you two whisper about me outside and what did you say about me to Nate and Charlie and Ray and John.”  
“Nothing of importance,” Zari said, turning toward Sara and then walking over to her bed and hopping up.  
“I don’t think it was nothing because if it was nothing you wouldn’t have laughed and looked at me like that.” Ava was getting frustrated.  
Sara stood up from her chair and walked to where Ava was in their doorway.  
“You want to know what I said about you?”  
“Yeah.”  
“I said, ‘Accurate? More like Anal-Retentive Ava.’” She stared at Ava and Ava didn’t know what to do. She stuttered and stepped back, trying to find the words.  
“Okay, are we good now? Got your answer? Great. Good night,” and she shut the door, leaving Ava outside, still trying to find the words. She turned and saw Gary standing about ten feet behind her.  
“That was awful, I’m so sorry, I-,” he started but Ava just nodded at him and said thanks, then headed immediately toward the stairs. 

Ava and Sara kept apart for the rest of orientation, and it seemed like the dorm knew it. Slowly people drifted to spending more time with Ava and Jess or more time with Sara and Zari. They had all heard about what happened in the lounge, she assumed from Gary, but it could have been just as likely John. Amaya, Jax, Gary, and Mona tended to hang around Ava and Jess. Nora and Ray too, although they also started spending a lot of time just the two of them. Jess and a few of the other students started to hang out on their own and often with other students they met in clubs or classes. Charlie, Nate, John, and Mick tended to stick close to Zari and Sara. 

The only time Ava and Sara had to interact was in their Intro to Gov class. Twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 p.m. and they came to an early accord that Ava sat in the front, far from the door and Sara ambled in just at 12:30 and sat in the middle against the wall by the door. They didn’t talk about it, but even when Ava showed up late once, running from an appointment with her advisor, Sara was sitting against her normal spot and smirked at her while she watched Ava do the walk of shame across the front of the room in front of the professor.


	2. September 2015

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things heat up in the second month of the semester.

Most of September passes like August, Sara and Zari running their lives separately from Ava, clashing sometimes in the lounge when one of them got in the other’s way or when Zari and Sara were loudly discussing something like a hookup or a frat party on a Wednesday night and Ava told them to shut up so the rest of them could study for a while. Hostile as it seemed though, there was a small respect among them, and the rest of the dorm let it be. Especially because Ava was the only one that was actually able to get the two of them to shut up for a while, even if they rolled their eyes and acted like they didn’t care. 

Then there was the first exam in late September in Sara and Ava’s Intro to Gov class. Ava got hers back and was content. An A- wasn’t perfect, but it was close enough and she could probably still finish the class with an A once she got her bearings. The professor talked the class through some of the questions he thought people had had trouble with, and before he ended the discussion said, “I know most of you might be a little disappointed coming from high school. The first exams in college are always tough because they’re different from the ones you took in high school. Even if you got a letter grade or two below normal, I’m sure you can still succeed. In fact, only one of you got an A on the paper. And only a few got A minuses. I’m sure that will change by the final, though.   
Later that evening, while most of the dorm was studying in the lounge, Ava walked by Zari and Sara sitting in the little kitchen, books open but talking about a Junior guy they had met at a party the last weekend. As soon as Ava walked in though, Sara turned to look at her, then smiled and nodded at Zari and pushed a paper toward the edge of the table and off the end. Ava had to stop so she wouldn’t step on it, and when she looked down, she noticed the red A. She glanced back at Sara and Sara shrugged, clearly satisfied with herself, and climbed out of the booth to get the exam. She walked over to where Ava was standing, bent down to pick it up, and held it between her thumb and forefinger, standing just a little too close to Ava, and gave her a little smile, then turned around and climbed back into the booth leaving Ava with a rush of frustration and anger and… something… as she walked back into the lounge, grabbed her backpack and gov book, and headed to the stairs. 

A few nights later, Ava and Amaya were studying for a calculus exam and comparing notes when Zari and Sara walked in, John and Nate following behind them. Ava watched as Zari, Nate, and John took up their normal lounge chairs, but Sara instead of sitting in her usual chair in the corner sat down on John’s lap and kicked her feet up on the table, laughing.   
Sara wriggled against John and turned to him, eating up the confusion and lust she saw, then turned to look at Ava across the room. Her eyes shined with mischief and though she wasn’t completely sure why, she knew she was getting to Ava and she knew she liked it. 

As the end of September rolled around, the resident assistants Caitlin and Brandon called a meeting for all of Rider Hall. They handed out little fliers to everyone as they came into the lounge and Sara looked at hers as she sat in her normal lounge chair. “Freshman Class President and Freshman Government Elections: November 2-4th.” Then there was a QR code to an online form to enter.   
“Alright, guys,” Caitlin said. “I know most of you know about Student Government now, and it’s finally time for you guys to choose your class leadership. I know some of you guys are interested in politics and international relations, and this is a fantastic thing to put on your resume plus it really gives you a chance to help out the rest of your class and the whole of SCU. I’m also hoping we’ll get a Rider Rep on the board this year. If you’re interested, scan the QR code and campaigning begins in October. There’ll be a meeting later this week for anyone interested and sign ups officially end on September 30th.”   
Most of the dorm looked toward Ava, who had made it very clear about a week ago that she was interested in running for Freshman Class President. Gary and Amaya were both super supportive, and once she started talking about all of her plans, most of the rest of the dorm was listening too. Sara, Zari, John, and Nate were the main holdouts, but that didn’t really bother Ava anymore.   
“You know,” Zari said, loud enough that most of the people who had remained in the lounge after Caitlin and Brandon left, “Sara, I bet you’d make a great Class President.” Ava shot the two of them a look from where she was across the room talking with Gary and Amaya.   
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Sara replied. “But I don’t know. That job’s kind of for tight asses who don’t know how to have a good time, so they spend it all trying to work on their resumes and acting like what they do makes much of a difference.”   
Amaya placed a hand on Ava’s shoulder, but she stood up anyway and took a step toward Sara and Zari.   
“Oh really? And what else should they be spending their time on? Fucking a perfect stranger every weekend they found on frat row while their roommate waits her turn making out with hers in the lounge while other people are trying to actually get work done?”   
“Sure, sounds like that would be a good way to loosen up a tight ass,” Sara retorted, smiling at Ava. Ava fumed. Score.   
“And what about all the good that student government does do. Planning events like homecoming, advocating for students’ rights and recognition from administration, deciding on budgets, representing our school to the city- “   
“Oh, please stop, all this bureaucracy is making me wet,” Sara deadpanned.   
“Okay, fine, don’t give a damn about how the school runs. You couldn’t do the job anyway.”   
“I mean, I could do a better job than you without having to do even half the work. At least, that’s what it seems like based on our gov class.”   
“I bet you cheated on that. You didn’t even study before it, you were making out with John on the sofa the night before.”   
“Bold words sweetheart, but no, I just knew the answers. Unlike some people.”   
“Fuck you,”   
“Nah I’m good.” Sara said.   
Amaya stood up and grabbed Ava’s arm, pushing her toward the stairs. Ava gave Sara a death stare as Amaya and Gary walked away with her.   
Zari and John laughed, but Nate watched Sara as she watched Ava and the others leave. “Maybe it’s not such a good idea to poke the bear, Sara,” he said as she sat down again.   
“But it’s fun to poke,” she replied, picking up her cell phone and holding it over the QR code on the flier, then she started typing. Zari, Nate, and John looked at each other as Sara hit “Send” and looked up at them.   
“Guess who’s officially in the running for class president.” 

On September 28th there was a meeting in one of the academic halls for potential candidates. Ava didn’t make eye contact with Sara as she walked in and they listened for the Student Government advisor to talk about all the responsibilities associated with being on the board. In the end, there was a sign-up sheet at the front that had the current list of candidates for office, and some kids walked up and crossed off their names or signed up. Ava waited and after most of the rest of the group had left, including Sara, she walked up and read the list. Under Freshman Class President there were three names: Ava Sharpe, Sara Lance, and Nick Garber. Nick’s name was crossed out.  
“This is going to be interesting,” Ava said to herself as she walked out.   
“It sure will,” a voice replied from behind her, leaning against the doorframe.   
“Did you stay there to stalk me,”   
“Nope, just dumb luck. See you on the campaign trail.” Sara kicked herself off the wall and sauntered down the hall. Ava watched her walk away, feeling that same flood of frustrated heat through her body that she’d come to associate with any interaction with Sara Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!   
> We'll see how this goes but so far I have everything planned out. I feel like I wanted to take the original animosity and just shoot carefree rebellious Sara into it and see how Ava would react, hopefully this rings true for you guys too.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> I think I'll post regularly every Friday or Saturday. I already have the first few chapters written so hopefully I'll keep going at that pace.


End file.
